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Nadal matches Federer with 20th Grand Slam title; 13th at Roland Garros
Rafael Nadal has matched Roger Federer with his 20th Grand Slam singles title.
Nadal’s 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Novak Djokovic in the French Open final was also Nadal’s 100th career match win at Roland Garros. The Spaniard improved to 100-2 at the tournament.
Nadal didn’t drop a set in this year’s tournament. He served an ace on his first championship point.
It was Djokovic’s second loss this year. His only other defeat in 2020 came when he was defaulted from the US Open last month for inadvertently hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball he smacked in anger during a fourth-round match against Pablo Carreño Busta. Djokovic remained with 17 Grand Slam titles.
Nadal beat Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-2, 7-5 to win a record-extending 13th French Open and match Roger Federer with his 20th Grand Slam title. The top-ranked Djokovic remained with 17 Grand Slam titles, reports AP.
Rafael Nadal leads Novak Djokovic 6-0, 6-2 in the French Open final and is one set away from a record-extending 13th title at Roland Garros. Djokovic saved three break points before holding his serve in the opening game of the second set to finally get on the board.
Nadal then broke twice for a 4-1 lead in the second and held from there. Nadal has not dropped a set in the tournament. Rafael Nadal won the first 6-0 against Novak Djokovic in the French Open final. Nadal has not lost a set at Roland Garros this year. He is seeking a record-extending 13th trophy at Roland Garros.
Nadal saved three break points at 3-0 and served an ace on his first set point. He also won the first set 6-0 against Djokovic en route to last year’s Italian Open title.
The French Open final between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic with the retractable roof closed on Court Philippe Chatrier began shortly after rain.
It was the 56th meeting between Nadal and Djokovic.
Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic have defended their French Open title in women’s doubles. The Hungarian-French pairing, seeded second, beat the 14th-seeded team of Alexa Guarachi, from Chile, and American Desirae Krawczyk 6-4, 7-5.
It is Babos and Mladenovic’s fourth Grand Slam doubles title together. As well as winning at Roland Garros last year, they have also won twice at the Australian Open, in 2018 and 2020.
As well as four titles won with Babos, Mladenovic also won in the doubles at Roland Garros in 2016 with French countrywoman Caroline Garcia.
Roland Garros organizers say they’ve not made a profit from this year’s pandemic-hit edition of the French Open that was pushed back from spring to autumn, deprived of 97% of its ticket sales and most of its spectators and is wrapping Sunday with the men’s final of Novak Djokovic vs. Rafael Nadal.
As for next year, organizers are still planning to restore the Grand Slam clay-court tournament to its usual May-June slot but admit they have no visibility on whether the pandemic will allow that to happen.
“We have no crystal ball,” said Bernard Giudicelli, the French tennis federation president. “We are advancing into the unknown.”
Organizers said that staging this year’s September-October edition in the midst of the pandemic, with only 1,000 spectators allowed per day and just 3% of the usual amount of tickets sold, caused a hit of 80 million to 100 million euros ($95 million to $118 million) to the tournament’s revenues and left it earning about what it cost to hold.
“We’re not making a (profit) margin,” said Jean-François Vilotte, the French federation’s director general.
Giudicelli insisted that holding the tournament in such conditions was still a “winning” choice and that it would have been “unthinkable” for 2020 to have passed without a French Open.
“To be a Grand Slam is to be a pillar of the game,” he said. “The pillar held.”
Also read: Just 19, ranked 54th, Swiatek wins French Open for 1st Slam
Just 19, ranked 54th, Swiatek wins French Open for 1st Slam
“First of all, I’m not very good at speeches,” Swiatek began, haltingly, “so, sorry, because I won my last tournament like two years ago, and I really don’t know who to thank.”
When she’s got a racket in her hand, it’s a whole different story. With the poise of a veteran and the shots of a champion, Swiatek wrapped up a dominating run at Roland Garros, grabbing the last six games to beat Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 in Saturday’s final.
“Two years ago, I won a junior Grand Slam, and right now I’m here. It feels like such a short time,” Swiatek said, her voice cracking. “I’m just overwhelmed.”
Swiatek (pronounced shvee-ON’-tek) is the first Polish tennis player to win a major singles trophy and said, “I know it’s pretty crazy back home” — where one newspaper’s front page was splashed with the headline “Poland Garros” ahead of the final, reports AP.
When she smacked one last forehand winner to the corner to end things, Swiatek placed her right hand over her mouth then crouched, shaking her head.
Hard to believe? Maybe. This was, after all, only her seventh major tournament; she’d never been past the fourth round at one.
But the way she played these two weeks — with powerful groundstrokes sent to corners, the occasional drop shot, terrific returning and impressive court coverage — made this outcome less of a surprise.
Swiatek lost only 28 games across seven matches and is the first woman to triumph in Paris without ceding a set since Justine Henin in 2007. She also is the first teen to win the women’s title there since Iva Majoli in 1997.
And Swiatek did it with victories over such opponents as 2018 champion Simona Halep and 2019 runner-up Marketa Vondrousova, both by scores of 6-1, 6-2.
So it made sense that Swiatek would be able to get past the fourth-seeded Kenin, even if the 21-year-old American was trying to claim her second major title of 2020 after winning the Australian Open.
“A great tournament,” Kenin told Swiatek. “A great match.”
Kenin was 16-1 in Grand Slam matches this year. But she dealt with a leg issue in the second set and showed frustration by kicking her red-white-and-blue racket after lost points.
And then there was this: She ran into the composed Swiatek, who only recently completed her high school studies and listens to “Welcome to the Jungle” by Guns N’ Roses before walking on court.
“I was just mentally consistent,” said Swiatek, who travels with a sports psychologist and meditates during changeovers, breathing slowly with her eyes closed. “I felt like today was really stressful for me, so it was kind of hard.”
This weekend is the culmination of an unusual two weeks, to say the least. The tournament was postponed form May-June to September-October because of the coronavirus pandemic; the recently rising number of COVID-19 cases in France led the government to limit the number of spectators allowed on the grounds to 1,000 each day.
Some top women, including 2019 champion Ash Barty and three-time major champ Naomi Osaka didn’t enter the event; 23-time Slam winner Serena Williams withdrew before the second round with an injury.
The temperature was in the mid-50s (low teens Celsius), with a slight breeze, and the hundreds of fans scattered in Court Philippe Chatrier were mostly subdued — other than a group that would shout Swiatek’s first name, stretching it out over several seconds each time to sound like “Eeeeeeeeeee-gah.”
Swiatek began with a 3-0 run, taking 12 of the first 15 points, delivering four winners and zero unforced errors.
No one expected Kenin — self-described as “feisty” — to go quietly. She got on the board with a hold, then broke when Swiatek double-faulted, the first sign that the magnitude of the moment might be hitting her. Soon enough, it was 3-all.
But Swiatek is nothing if not resilient. She served for the set at 5-3, and got broken, but responded right away by stealing yet another one of Kenin’s service games.
Same thing happened to begin the second set: Kenin broke for a 1-0 edge, and Swiatek broke right back. She wouldn’t lose another game on her way to her first tour-level title.
At the changeover at 2-1, Kenin left the court for a medical timeout, then returned with her left thigh wrapped.
While Kenin was gone, Swiatek stayed warm by pulling on a white jacket and hitting some serves, earning applause from spectators.
When play resumed, Swiatek needed only 12 more minutes to wrap up the victory, finishing with a 25-10 edge in winners.
All that was left was to hear the Polish anthem — never before played after a major singles final — ring out in the stadium, check out her shiny trophy and go through the speeches and interviews.
After speaking for a bit, Swiatek asked, “Should I say something else?”
She was told by the emcee that she could if she wanted.
“I have no idea,” Swiatek said. “Sorry.”
Better practice up, Iga. The tennis world expects to see more such speeches in the future.
BCB President’s Cup: Najmul XI to face Mahmudullah XI Sunday
Dhaka, Oct 10 (UNB) — In an attempt to bring the game of cricket back to the field after a long hiatus forced by Covid-19, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) is all set to host a three-team one-day competition— BCB President’s Cup— from Sunday. On the opening day, Najmul XI will take on Mahmudullah XI at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
The match will kick off at 1:30pm and it will be streamed live on the official Facebook page of BCB— fb.com/bcbtigercricket— for the visitors worldwide.
The BCB President’s Cup will be marked as the first competitive cricket event in Bangladesh after the long hiatus forced by the deadly coronavirus. The last competitive game was played in Bangladesh in March this year. BCB had to stop all the cricketing activities after that due to Covid-19.
Matches of this event will not be recognized by the ICC, but BCB tried everything to increase the importance of this event to the cricketers. The champions will receive prize money of BDT 1,500,00 while the runners-up will get BDT 750,00. And the man of the series will be awarded BDT 200,000 while the best batsman, bowler and fielder of the event will get BDT 100,000 each along with the man of the final.
And at the same time, the man of the match will receive BDT 50,000 after each match, while the best batsman, bowler and fielder will also receive BDT 25,000 each after every game.
“We have a good team, but I believe the most important thing is to do well in the field. I expect this event will be very competitive. We are all set to go back to cricket with the President’s Cup. But we have many things to take from it. If a young player does well, he might get a chance in the national team in future. I don’t think that the players would take it just a practice event,” Bangladesh’s ODI captain Tamim Iqbal told the media.
Bangladesh’s T20 captain Mahmudullah also said that he is happy with the team he has. He also believes that the BCB President’s Cup will be a very competitive event.
“It’s a great feeling that we are finally backing to the field to play competitive cricket. We had been training for a long time which was also a pleasant thing. Our goal is to win this event and come up champions. All the promising and experienced players are going to play in this event, so it will be very competitive. Everyone is excited about it,” Mahmudullah, whose team will take the field in the opening game, told the media after unveiling the trophy with other captains.
“We have a balanced team from top-order to the late middle-order. Both of our spin and pace-bowling departments is also good. I believe it’ll be a very good event of cricket and everyone is eager to prove their mettle,” he added.
Najmul Hossain Shanto, who will lead a team, said like the other two teams, he also has a balanced team. The 22-year-old left-handed batsman also said his team will take the field eyeing on the championship.
“I think it’ll be a very challenging event for all the team participating in this. We will play for the championship, and I believe it won’t be tough if we can play our natural game. Most of the players in our team are very young, and we are a stronger fielding side as well. Let’s see what we can do,” Najmul told the media.
A total of six matches will be played in the BCB President’s Cup before the final. The top two teams in the league phase will take on in the final which will be played on the same venue on October 23. Every match will have a reserve day. It means, in case of any interruption, the match will roll to the next day.
Fixture of BCB President Cup:
Oct 11: Mahmudullah XI vs Najmul XI
Oct 13: Mahmudullah XI vs Tamim XI
Oct 15: Tamim XI vs Najmul XI
Oct 16: Mahmudullah vs Najmul XI
Oct 19: Mahmudullah vs Tamim XI
Oct 21: Tamim XI vs Najmul XI
Oct 23: the final
Asian Nations Cup Online Chess begins Saturday
The Asian Nations Cup Online Chess Championship 2020, organised by the Asian Chess Federation, begins on Saturday.
Thirty-nine teams will compete in the open section while 32 teams will participate in the women’s section of the meet to be participated by Asian and Oceania region teams including Bangladesh, India, Kazakhstan, Iran, Australia and the Philippines.
Preliminary phase of both sections will be held on nine-round Swiss-League system.
Eight teams from each section will qualify for the quarter final.
In the Open section, Bangladesh team consists of - Captain: Dr. Shoeb Reaz Alam, Players: GM Niaz Murshed, GM Ziaur Rahman, GM Reefat Bin Sattar, IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman and IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin.
In the Women's section, Bangladesh team consists of Captain: WCM Mahmuda Hoque Chowdhury Moly, players: WIM Rani Hamid, WIM Sharmin Sultana Shirin, WCM Ahmed Walijah, WFM Nazrana Khan Eva and WFM Noshin Anjum.
FIDE Trainer IM Abu Sufian Shakil will be the Technical Coach of Bangladesh.
US$20,000 prize money will be given to the winners of both sections.
Also read: Int’l Rating Chess: Minhaz Uddin takes solo lead after round five
No Bangladeshi players for LPL
No Bangladesh players, including star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, will feature in the upcoming Lanka Premier League (LPL) in Sri Lanka, in what looks to be a fallout of the eventual postponement of the Test series between the two nations over COVID-19 regulations.
Shakib is currently serving a ban imposed by the ICC due to failing to report corrupt approaches made to him. However, his ban will come to the end in October. The LPL 2020 is scheduled for 14 November to 6 December 2020.
Nazmul Hassan, the BCB president, on Monday said the board will not provide Shakib with an NOC (No Objection Certificate, effectively a permit) for LPL. Along with Shakib, there are more Bangladeshi cricketers who are listed in the LPL players list who will also miss this T20 league.
“I don’t see any possibility. And at the same time, we also are going to host domestic cricket,” Nazmul Hassan said replying a question regarding Shakib’s participation in LPL.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka boards were forced to postpone a three-match Test series which was scheduled to take place from October 24.
As per the regulation of the Sri Lanka government, everyone entering Sri Lanka needs to maintain a 14-day quarantine. BCB had asked their counterparts Sri Lanka Cricket to trim this period to seven days, but Sri Lanka's government refused it.
BCB said it’s not possible for them to continue with this tour maintaining the health guidelines provided by the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
While Sri Lanka tour is postponed, BCB is eying to host domestic cricket from mid-October. Shakib might resume his career with domestic event once his ban is over.
The star all-rounder is currently preparing at Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protishthan to make a good comeback to competitive cricket.
Also read Still nothing definite on Sri Lanka tour